FIX: Restore an Item Removed by Windows Defender
Windows Defender is the resident antivirus program and serves to identify and remove threats in the latest version of the Windows Operating System – Windows 10. As of Windows 10, Windows Defender has completely replaced Microsoft Security Essentials as the default system protection program. Among the many duties that Windows Defender carries out regularly for the average Windows 10 user is searching for and identifying any applications, files, folders, or other elements that may pose a threat to their computer. It then eliminates them before they can cause any damage.
However, Windows Defender is, like all other computer programs, prone to making mistakes. Since that is the case, Windows Defender may sometimes identify files that are actually harmless and/or are critical to the operation of an application or program as threats to your computer. Fortunately for you, once Windows Defender identifies an element as a threat, it does not outright delete it entirely. Instead, Windows Defender quarantines the element pending review by you – the user – where you get to decide whether the element should be completely removed or has been identified as a threat by mistake and should be restored.
Once an element has been quarantined by Windows Defender, it no longer poses harm to your computer, regardless of whether it has been entirely removed. If Windows Defender has wrongly identified a file or other element you wish to keep, don’t worry—restoring the item is straightforward. To restore an item flagged as a threat and quarantined by Windows Defender, follow these steps:
Open Windows Defender.
Click on Tools.
Click on Quarantined items.
Review all of the items on the list, determine what items you want to restore and then, one by one, click on each of them and click on the Restore button found at the bottom right of the window.
